- UCI ProTour
-
UCI ProTour Sport Road bicycle racing Founded 2005 No. of teams 18 (Others invited on
race by race basis)Country(ies) Europe, Australia and Canada Ceased 2010 Last champion(s) Alejandro Valverde (2008)
Caisse d'Epargne (2008)
Spain (2008)The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI (International Cycling Union). Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series. It was initially the basis of a season long competition for rankings points, created for 2005 to replace the UCI Road World Cup series, which ended at the end of the 2004 season (although the World Cup did not include any stage races). The ProTour was the subject of continuing disputes involving the UCI, cycling teams, and the organizers of the world's most prominent bicycle races (most notably, the Grand Tours), and in 2009 and 2010 the ranking element of the ProTour was superseded by the UCI World Ranking. For 2011, the ProTour and World Ranking were fully merged into the UCI World Tour. ProTour status for teams - relabelled UCI ProTeams - will continue as the highest level of registration, and will carry the right and obligation to participate in all World Tour races.[1]
Contents
Licensing
The ProTour licences are given to a maximum of 20 teams, to which sponsors must commit multiple years of sponsorship (4 years at the ProTour's inauguration). The exception to this rule was the Phonak team, which was given only a two-year licence due to previous doping allegations. Licence holders can apply for registration each year, which is dependent upon a check on contracts and budgets.
After 2005, the Fassa Bortolo and Domina Vacanze teams folded and the vacant places were given to AG2R Prévoyance and Team Milram respectively. Following the 2006 season the designated replacement principal sponsor for the Phonak Hearing Systems team, iShares, pulled its support as a results of the Floyd Landis doping scandal and the team was disbanded. The Unibet.com Cycling Team received Phonak's ProTour license, and the Swiss-based, Kazakh-backed Astana Team received the license previously owned by Manolo Saiz and his Liberty Seguros-Würth. Unibet.com and Discovery Channel discontinued after the 2007 season, bringing down the number of ProTour teams to 18. At the end of 2008, another two teams dropped out: Crédit Agricole and Gerolsteiner. Their licenses were taken over by Garmin-Slipstream and Team Katusha. Bbox Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis were denied licence renewals for the 2010 season, and new licences were given to Team Sky and Team RadioShack. Although Lampre-Farnese Vini had had its licence renewed until 2013, its registration (a separate process from licensing, concerning finances) was temporarily rejected, but restored after they had missed one race. UCI bylaws were later changed to require a team to be registered before its license is granted or renewed, to avoid a repeat of this situation.
History
Season-long competitions for professional road racing were first instituted in 1948, and continued until the late 1980s when the UCI instituted the UCI Road World Cup series which ran until 2004.
In replacing the World Cup, the ProTour was designed to follow the format of the Formula One motor-racing series, and was intended to address several concerns:
- The Grand Tours were not part of the UCI Road World Cup series
- Different riders and different teams targeted different types of races, making direct comparisons difficult
- Team sponsorships tended to last only a very few years
- Many teams had financial difficulty in paying their riders and staff members
- Several teams had been plagued by doping issues
The UCI lobbied the organizers of the Grand Tours to participate in the ProTour, and was successful in obtaining their agreement despite prior disagreements and threats to completely pull out of the ProTour.
The ProTour has been criticized for not having a system in place for a timely upgrade and downgrade of teams from/to the lower-tier UCI Continental Circuits.
UCI versus Grand Tour organisers
Originally, UCI and the organisers of the Grand Tours had been unable to come to terms on the 2006 UCI ProTour, with the result that the status of both the Grand Tours and some of the other races organised by those organisations behind the Grand Tours was unclear until well into the season, but they were eventually included.
During the 2007 UCI ProTour season, the ASO, RCS and Unipublic, organisers of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España respectively, remained at odds with each other. The primary reason was that grand tour organisers wanted more freedom to invite popular national teams (e.g., UCI Professional Continental teams) and the right to exclude some UCI ProTour teams such as Unibet.com. Failure to achieve agreement lead UCI chairman Pat McQuaid to send a letter in February 2008 to all professional teams urging them to boycott Paris–Nice because it was an 'outlawed' race. In response, the AIGCP (Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels) announced that the teams had unanimously decided to take part in Paris–Nice, the organisation of which was to be taken over by the French Cycling Federation.[2] Quick Step team manager Patrick Lefevere commented: "I'm more than fed up with all the arguing. ASO and UCI don't know how much damage they are doing to the sport. What am I supposed to tell my sponsors? This conflict has been going on for three years and is escalating all the time. Can the teams be certain that they will be able to take part in the Tour de France later in the year?".[3]
From 2008, the ProTour was largely devalued by the withdrawal from its calendar of the three Grand Tours, namely the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, as well as the early-season stage race Paris–Nice and key single-day events such as Paris–Roubaix, Milan – San Remo, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, La Flèche Wallonne and the Giro di Lombardia.
On July 15, 2008, the 17 ProTour teams participating in the 2008 Tour de France announced that none of them would seek ProTour licenses for the 2009 season,[4] but in the end all but two of them re-committed[citation needed].
In 2008 the Tour Down Under in Australia became the first ProTour event to be held outside Europe. This will be followed by two one day races in Canada in 2010, and possibly the Tour of California in 2011.[5]
In 2009 UCI and organizers had agreement that events will be counted towards UCI World Ranking, which also includes Professional Continental teams. Grand Tour organizers kept the right to choose teams for the races, and also some of the teams chose not to race certain races. From 2011, all races on the World Calendar, those that yield World Ranking points, are to be classified as World Tour events, and the Pro Tour as a distinct series of races is to be discontinued.
Events
Key:
*: Included in ProTour
•: Race held, but not as part of ProTour
X: Race not held, or not as elite professional raceDate Race Country Type 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Mid-late January Tour Down Under 
Australia1 week stage • • • * * * Early-mid March Paris–Nice 
France1 week stage * * * • • • Early-mid March Tirreno–Adriatico 
Italy1 week stage * * * • • • Mid March Milan – San Remo Italy1 day * * * • • • Mid May (2005–2009)
Late March (2010)Volta a Catalunya 
Spain1 week stage * * * * * * Late March - early April Gent–Wevelgem 
Belgium1 day * * * * * * Early April Ronde van Vlaanderen Belgium1 day * * * * * * Early April Vuelta al País Vasco Spain1 week stage * * * * * * Early April Paris–Roubaix France1 day * * * • • • Mid April Amstel Gold Race 
Netherlands1 day * * * * * * Mid April La Flèche Wallonne Belgium1 day * * * • • • Mid-late April Liège–Bastogne–Liège Belgium1 day * * * • • • Late April - early May Tour de Romandie 
Switzerland1 week stage * * * * * * May - early June Giro d'Italia Italy3 week stage * * * • • • Early June Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré France1 week stage * * * * * * Mid June Tour de Suisse Switzerland1 week stage * * * * * * Mid June Eindhoven Team Time Trial NetherlandsTeam time trial * * * X X X July Tour de France France3 week stage * * * • • • Early-mid August Deutschland Tour 
Germany1 week stage * * * * X X Mid August Clásica de San Sebastián Spain1 day * * * * * * Early-mid September
Early August from 2009Tour de Pologne 
Poland1 week stage * * * * * * Mid-late August
(Early August in 2005)Eneco Tour Belgium
Netherlands1 week stage * * * * * * Late August - September Vuelta a España Spain3 week stage * * * • • • Late August (2005–2010), September (2011- ) GP Ouest-France France1 day * * * * * * Late July (2005–06)
August - September (2007-)Vattenfall Cyclassics
(HEW Cyclassics in 2005) Germany1 day * * * * * * Early-mid September Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec 
Canada1 day X X X X X * Early-mid September Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal Canada1 day X X X X X * Early October Züri-Metzgete Switzerland1 day * * X X X X Early-mid October Paris–Tours France1 day * * * • • • Mid October Giro di Lombardia Italy1 day * * * • • • List of current UCI ProTeams
The 18 ProTeams in 2011 are:[6]
Code Official Team Name License holder Country Licence expiry Website ALM Ag2r-La Mondiale EUSRL France Cyclisme France2012 ag2r-cyclisme.com (French) AST Astana Olympus Sarl 
Kazakhstan2013 proteam-astana.com BMC BMC Racing Team Continuum Sports LLC 
United States2014 bmcracingteam.com MOV Movistar Team Abarca Sports S.L. Spain2013 movistarteam.com EUS Euskaltel-Euskadi Fundación Ciclista Euskadi Spain2012 fundacioneuskadi.com (Spanish) GRM Garmin-Cervélo Slipstream Sports, LLC United States2012 slipstreamsports.com LAM Lampre-ISD Total Cycling Limited Italy2013 teamlampre.it LIQ Liquigas-Cannondale Liquigas Sport Spa Italy2014 teamliquigas.it (Italian) LEO Leopard Trek 
Luxembourg2014 leopardtrek.lu QST Quick Step Esperanza Bvba Belgium2011 qsi-cycling.com RAB Rabobank Rabo Wielerploegen Netherlands2012 rabosport.nl/wielrennen (Dutch) OLO Omega Pharma-Lotto Belgian Cycling Company sa Belgium2011 omegapharma-lotto.be THR HTC-Highroad High Road Sports, Inc. United States2014 highroadsports.com KAT Team Katusha Katusha Management SA 
Russia2011 katushateam.com RSH Team RadioShack Capital Sports and Entertainment United States2013 livestrong.com/teamradioshack/ SBS Saxo Bank-SunGard Riis Cycling A/S 
Denmark2011 team-saxobank.com SKY Team Sky Tour Racing Limited 
United Kingdom2013 teamsky.com VCD Vacansoleil-DCM Netherlands2013 vacansoleilprocyclingteam.com (Dutch) History of team participation
Dark grey indicates that the team was not operating in the year in question. Mid-grey indicates that the team was competing at a lower level in the year in question.
ProTour Results
Year Top Ranked Individual Top Ranked Team Top Ranked Nation 2005 Danilo Di Luca (ITA)
Liquigas-BianchiTeam CSC Italy2006 Alejandro Valverde (ESP)
Caisse d'Epargne-Illes BalearsTeam CSC Spain2007 Cadel Evans (AUS)
Predictor-LottoTeam CSC Spain2008 Alejandro Valverde (ESP)
Caisse d'EpargneCaisse d'Epargne SpainFrom 2009, the season-long competition element of the ProTour was replaced by the UCI World Ranking.
See also
References
- ^ VeloNews Confusion continues as ProTour teams will start all 26 races in new UCI World Tour".
- ^ Cycling teams to take part in Paris-Nice (in Dutch)
- ^ UCI asks teams to boycott Paris-Nice (in Dutch)
- ^ Agence France-Presse, July 15, 2008. "17 teams will not seek ProTour licenses for '09"
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-announce-18-proteams-for-2011
- ^ Later in the season known as FDJ
- ^ Later in the season known as Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne
- ^ Later in the season known as Lampre-Farnese
- ^ Later in the season known as Würth
- ^ Later in the season known as Liquigas-Doimo
- ^ Later in the season known as Scott-American Beef
- ^ Later in the season known as Team High Road
- ^ Later in the season known as Team Columbia
- ^ During the season, the team's name changed to Team CSC Saxo Bank
External links
- Official website
- Official Union Cycliste Internationale website
- www.cyclingnews.com coverage of ProTour collapse, a 1-April joke
Bibliography
- Luca Rebeggiani/Davide Tondani: Organizational Forms in Professional Cycling - Efficiency Issues of the UCI Pro Tour (describes strengths and weaknesses of the UCI ProTour from a social scientists' point of view)
Road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing season-long competitions Challenge Desgrange-Colombo (1948–1958) · Super Prestige Pernod International (1958–1988) · UCI Road World Rankings (1984–2004) · UCI Road World Cup (1989–2004) · UCI ProTour (2005–2008) · UCI World Tour (Since 2009)
UCI ProTour Seasons Races Tour Down Under • Tour of Flanders • Tour of the Basque Country • Gent–Wevelgem • Amstel Gold Race • Tour de Romandie • Volta a Catalunya • Critérium du Dauphiné • Tour de Suisse • Clásica de San Sebastián • Eneco Tour • GP Ouest-France • Deutschland Tour • Vattenfall Cyclassics • Tour de Pologne • Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec • Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
Categories:- Road bicycle racing
- UCI ProTour
- UCI tours
- Recurring sporting events established in 2005
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